As we are winding down on the semester, student government has some updates to share with you.

The first update is about charging stations in the Memorial Union. Charging stations have been installed and are ready for the use of students.

Next, we have a big change happening to our student senate. For many years the student senate has consisted of both academic and residential districts.

The current student senate recently passed an amendment to the Student Body Constitution to change the structure of the student senate to only consist of academic districts.

In order for this change to actually occur, the student body will need to pass this amendment. If passed, this change will not be in effect until the 2017-2018 school year.

There was much discussion regarding this change including concerns with how student senators currently represent their constituents. “As an off campus senator, it is hard to talk to my constituents. I feel academic representation is better,” said Bob Mason, off-campus senator.

The student senate felt that this was the best option to have all students represented equally in the senate.

As you may have noticed, holiday lights were put up this week. This project started last year when a senator noticed that many students do not get to go home for the holidays.

This was a good alternative for them to still get some holiday spirit on NDSU’s campus. The location and amount of lights have expanded since last year and we look to continue to grow this project in years to come.

Finally, we encourage student organizations to start thinking about the spring 2016 Involvement Expo that will be hosted by student government at the beginning of next semester.

It is important to start thinking about ways to better promote your student organization to increase involvement and gain new members that are excited about your organization.

The Congress of Student Organizations commission will be revamping this Involvement Expo, so look out for some changes that will be made to improve the experience of this expo.

As always, please bring any concerns about anything you may have to the student government office. We are here to serve you and look forward to making this campus even better than it already is.